Hat Trick Kane, Blackhawks Unload On Coyotes

The Blackhawks came into Thursday night’s action celebrating Nick Schmaltz’s 21st birthday and on one of their better rolls of the season. But with Niklas Hjalmarsson missing the morning skate, coach Joel Quenneville decided to skate seven defensemen against the Arizona Coyotes at the United Center.

With Michal Rozsival back in action, the Hawks wasted no time getting into the offensive flow. Only 37 seconds into the game, the birthday boy celebrated with his sixth goal of the season.

Chicago’s top line continues to be on fire, as Jonathan Toews and Richard Panik picked up the assists on Schmaltz’s goal. Schmaltz is the first Blackhawks player to score a goal on his birthday since Patrick Sharp scored on his birthday in 2014.

The Hawks didn’t give up a quick goal immediately following the Schmaltz tally, but Arizona did get the next goal. Jakob Chychrun tied the game seven minutes after the Schmaltz score.

For the rest of the period, as much as the Hawks wanted to pull away, the Coyotes just kept hanging around.

Ryan Hartman gave the Blackhawks a 2-1 lead three minutes after the Chychrun goal.

Hartman became the seventh Blackhawks player to reach 15 goals on the season, and the rookie is now tied with Toews in that statistic. He

Hartman stayed involved in the offense, picking up an assist on Patrick Kane’s 21st of the season six minutes later.

Apparently Hjalmarsson wasn’t feeling well, because his fifth and final shift came with 8:22 remaining in the first period; he skated 3:02 in the opening 20 minutes. With under three minutes left in the period, Rozsival got absolutely undressed by Ryan White. White shot the puck off the boards behind the Hawks’ net, skated around Rozsival, and beat Crawford to draw the Coyotes to within one.

Radim Vrbata, one of the hot names in trade rumors ahead of next week’s deadline, tied the game 57 seconds later because nothing can ever be easy against Arizona.

Brian Campbell took a delay of game penalty with 58 seconds left in the period, but the Hawks were able to kill off the first half of the penalty to close out an ugly first period for defense on both ends of the ice. Corey Crawford allowed three goals against 10 shots while Mike Smith allowed three against 13 shots. And with Hjalmarsson missing, the Hawks were down to 11 forwards for the rest of the night.

The second period started with the Hawks finishing the Campbell penalty, and then the offense went to work in similar fashion to the first. Chicago’s top line took control and just under three minutes into the second Schmaltz set up Rozsival and the ancient warrior scored his first goal of the year to give Chicago a 4-3 lead.

Poor Jordin Tootoo.

And Andrew Desjardins.

Toews picked up the second assist with Schmaltz on the Rozsival goal, giving both players another multi-point effort.

Campbell went back to the box but this time the Hawks attacked. Marian Hossa carried the puck and Alexander Burmistrov into the zone and eliminated the second half of the Campbell minor as Burmistrov was called for hooking. Neither team scored on their advantage, however.

Twelve minutes into the second, Kane jumped over the boards and caught a lead pass at center ice. He settled a bouncing puck down and patiently waited for Tanner Kero to join him, only to rifle a shot through Smith’s legs. For the second time in the game, Kane gave the Blackhawks a two-goal lead.

With 1:46 left in the second, Panik got his money’s worth at the expense of Martin Hanzal’s face. Once the ice crew was done cleaning up the blood, Panik sat down for four minutes. The Hawks killed off the 106 seconds to close the second period.

Arizona out-shot Chicago 16-9 in the second period, but Crawford kept the visitors off the board while his skaters re-established a two-goal lead heading to the second break. Through 40 minutes, Toews and Kero had both won six of nine faceoffs while Dennis Rasmussen had won six of eight.

Chicago opened the third period successfully killing the rest of the Panik double-minor. It wasn’t a great night for Panik, who also took a terrible intentional offsides later in the third period.

Almost 10 minutes into the third, Kane finished off the hat trick.

After Toews’ hat trick on Tuesday night, Thursday marked the first time the Blackhawks had consecutive hat tricks in the regular season since Alexei Zhamnov and Eric Daze went back-to-back on April 11 and 13, 1997. Toews and Dustin Byfuglien had back-to-back hat tricks in the Blackhawks’ postseason series against Vancouver on May 5 and 7, 2010.

Artemi Panarin and Artem Anisimov assisted on Kane’s third goal, the first of the three that either was credited with a point. Kane is up to 23 goals on the season.

Brandan Perlini went to eh box with 6:54 left in regulation with the Coyotes not showing much fight after Kane’s third marker. Chicago put a couple attempts on net but didn’t get anything done in the two minute advantage. Indeed, Arizona didn’t do much of anything after Kane extended the lead to three, and the game easily ended with a 6-3 final favoring the home squad.

Kane, Hartman, Toews and Schmaltz had multi-point games on Thursday. Toews won 12 of 17 at the dot to lead a good night in faceoffs for Chicago. Rozsival led the Hawks with three blocked shots in addition to his first goal of the season. Panik led the Hawks with three hits.

After a rough first period, Crawford finished the night with 34 saves against 37 shots to earn a win.

Quenneville said Niklas Hjalmarsson has an upper-body injury. Not sure of the prognosis yet but seems to think Hjalmarsson will be OK.

24 thoughts on “Hat Trick Kane, Blackhawks Unload On Coyotes”

Nice to score 6 goals and get the 2 points … but … very sloppy in the d-zone and with outlet passes, especially in the 1st period. It sure seemed like the Hawks weren’t mentally prepared to play as hard and focused as needed to win in the NHL. Fortunately it was against Arizona when Mike Smith wasn’t standing on his head. I’d be surprised if the Hawks don’t come out with a lot more focus against the Blues on Sunday.

Hopefully Hammer is OK. Prefer not to see Rozsival roaming the d-zone again any time soon, regardless of him chipping in the GWG tonight.

Hartman is a keeper. Looks like Schmaltz is too. Very nice when you get two rookies who can contribute and a couple more who aren’t too bad either.

After last night’s performance, w/ consistent playing time, Rozsival can make his push for Norris Trophy consideration.

How do you roll 4 lines w/ 11 forwards? They got away w/ it last night against a bad team. All Q, Toews, Kane and pretty much everyone has been talking about during this hot streak is how effective rolling the 4 lines has been. They are correct too, the eye test and stats prove they are spot on.

If you’re going to play only 11 forwards, how is it Hinostroza sits and Rasmussen is still in the lineup? Anyway….. keep the line moving, The teams in the Central do not concern me whatsoever come playoff time. San Jose is the second best team in the West. We’ll see how everything plays out.

P.S. Tampa Bay lost last night in regulation …. a few more days for Yzerman to decide what he is going to do, he has cap space issues of his own for next year. He can’t sign everyone either, just like the Hawks annual problem.

re: “If you’re only going to play 11 forwards” – let’s not put some aspects of the game in a vaccuum. Hjalmarsson was a question mark and they decided to skate him. Hinostroza was initially on the active roster but was the last minute scratch. They sat him because Rasmussen has value on PK; Hinostroza has value as the 12th fwd. Arizona came in playing their best hockey of the season and Quenneville was clearly – and rightfully – not worried about scoring enough to win the game. He was concerned about 60 minutes that looked like the opening 20 (or the 2nd period the last time Arizona played the Hawks) with a quick turnaround.

Give me a choice of dressing 11 forwards b/w Rasmussen & Hinostroza, I would dress Hinostroza. Rasmussen isn’t Frolik Jr. either killing penalties; Hinostroza can give him a head start and still beat him in a skating race. Rasmussen is a huge upgrade from the days of Bollig & Mashinter, but still…..

wholeheartedly disagree, iceman. Rasmussen has been a valuable part of special teams this season and him giving Q the ability to not use one of Toews/Hossa as much on PK is significant. The Hawks have 9 forwards who can skate… Hinostroza is a nice player, but he’s a depth piece that only skates at even strength. Skating Rasmussen as the 11th fwd is a no-brainer.

I’m in the camp who thinks dressing a 7th d-man was the correct move last night. With Hjalmarsson trying to go but not at 100%, it’s better to have the 7th d-man so when Hjalmarsson has to leave the game it doesn’t needlessly elevate Keith’s minutes. They still did a pretty good job of rolling 4 lines last night with Kane double shifting.

I thought Moose had a good game last nite… makes subtle good plays in the O zone.

I like both Hino/Moose… for obvious different reasons… Moose way better on boards (especially if versus bigger team… or you need to escape zone)… Hino is great on forecheck/buzzing… but couldn’t skate both last nite.

Panik- made a few stupid plays… has to be smarter.

Crow- let up a softie… still needs to get his groove

Kempny- has been improving… decisions are quicker/reads are better… I thought Q gave Forsling more chances/mistakes all year… and Kempny- got none… but it looks like it was done for good reason… Cuz- Kempny- looks like he has improved from these “sit-down” lessons.

Who would I rather have killing penalties in the playoffs? Kruger, Hossa & Toews… and I would prefer the Blackhawks continue Rasmussen’s maturation into a more important role after this season (read: replace Kruger) than give up assets to rent Boyle. Love me some Boyle, don’t get me wrong (I’ve written about him at past deadlines) but this year with this team I just don’t think the Hawks go the rental route.

Regarding rentals, assuming the Stars are going to be sellers do we have an interest in either Sharpie or Oduya? Neither having a great year so am I crazy to think they might be available for a mid-round pick (say 3rd) and a college prospect?

I think the Hawks learned their lesson on “back to the future” trades. Ladd played decent but was not the same Andrew Ladd who won the Cup with the Hawks in 2010.

Sharp’s final season was filled with innuendo, rumors and drama. Guys we’re forced to answer awkward and uneasy questions about their personal lives.
By the time they won the Cup in June and passed it to Sharp, it looked to me like he was a lone wolf. Why would Stan bring this drama back into the locker room ? SB is way to smart to do that.

On Oduya. He was a really good number 4 when he was a Hawk. But is he the same player 2 seasons later and 2 years older ? Likely not. Pass.

Good on Rosy ,he looked like a twenty something when he took the pass and buried the goal ,top shelf no doubt,.,.but strangely enough he looked old and decrepit as the Yotes out funked him a couple times in his own end . Loved that big shit eating grin on Toews face when he congratulated Rosy . Old and in the way as Jerry Garcia use to say . Next.

Hawks banked 2 pts against a team they should have beat. I viewed the Hawks play last night as playing down to the competition. They did what they had to.

Rozy had lots of rust out of the gate having not played in many weeks. He improved as the game progressed. Great to see him bury that shot. One can only hope Hammer is not down for too long. Shot block in the upper chest from the Wild game does seem a likely culprit. #4 is as tough as they come.

Craig N. – The Sharp “saga” never seemed to get flushed out – not sure how much was fact and how much was fiction. Regardless, if he would be an issue in the room then it is a non-starter. I still think SB will pick up a depth guy or two for a lower round pick. We have been pretty fortunate from an injury standpoint and if we lose someone our only option is Desi as Tootoo clearly is not going to get a regular shift.

Happy to see Rozy score a goal and redeem ourselves. Big picture keep everyone playing from time to time.

Totally fine with playing really good spurts (with some sloppy) to get 3-1 lead and letting up/coasting. This is 4 in 6 and we just played really hard against MIN and full energy in the 3 in 4. What matters is even though the other team doesn’t deserve 2 goals to tie 3-3 just because we let up, after that we did wat we did. Kill PK and score goal, kill PK and score PK in 2nd period. Bang 5-3. 3rd period was very similar to that. Theres nothing wrong with doing what we needed to. Big picture wise when we can take her easy it good, as long as we win. Against bottom 10/5 teams these are the ones to do this.